Tag: Western Wall

The priestly blessing (birkat hacohanim) has always held a certain fascination for me. Although in Israel, and in all Sephardic communities, it is recited daily in synagogue, in Ashkenazi Diaspora communities like mine it is only recited during festivals, so it became something of a special event. I remember from a young age the priests ascending to the stage at the front of the synagogue, by the ark, in preparation for this ancient ceremony. Those who were sitting in seats that were to the side would get up and move so that they could be in front of the priests in order to receive the blessing. We would stand and my father would take me under his tallit (prayer shawl) and instruct me firmly not to look at the priests while they were blessing us – it is forbidden. This combined with the unique and haunting tune sung during the blessing made it a very special moment.

In 1967, after the Six Day War, Israel took control of the Old City of Jerusalem for the first time, and Jews had unrestricted access to the Western Wall. Those of you who have toured with me will be aware of the various complexities associated with that war and its results, but putting that aside for a moment, this was an event of huge importance. This was the first time in memory that Jews were free to visit and pray at this most holy of sites. Whether religious or secular, the significance was huge.

Those of you who have visited the Wall will be aware that there are normally several services happening there in parallel, but in 1970 a rabbi decided to try and create one large public service which would incorporate the priestly blessing. According to Rabbi Eleazar ben Judah of Worms, an important commentator and mystic from the middle ages, there is special significance to hearing the blessing from over 300 priests, close to where the temple once stood.

Today, the special unified service takes place twice a year. Once during Pesach (Passover) in the Spring and once during Sukkot (Tabernacles) in the Autumn. These festivals are significant as they are two of the ‘Three Foot Festivals’; festivals on which a pilgrimage to Jerusalem is required, as commanded in the Torah in Deuteronomy 16:16:
“Three times a year shall all your people appear before the Lord your God in the place that God will choose [referring presumably to the Temple in Jerusalem], on the festivals of Pesach, Shavuot [Pentecost], and Sukkot. They shall not appear empty handed. Each shall bring his own gift, appropriate to the blessing which the Lord your God has given you”

Often when guiding in the vicinity of what used to be the Temple, I try to help people imagine what it would have been like on these occasions – tens of thousands of pilgrims arriving from around the region in order to offer sacrifices and to be part of the service. And one of the only parts of that ceremony that we can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that would have dated back even to the time of the First Temple (from roughly 3000 years ago) is the priestly blessing. In fact, the oldest version of any part of the bible that exists was found inscribed on an amulet from the 6th century – it was the text of the priestly blessing (and in my opinion one of the highlights of the Israel Museum’s collection).

In Hebrew the word for a pilgrim is an oleh l’regel, the literal translation of which is ‘someone who goes up by foot’. One goes up to Jerusalem both physically (it is in the hills) and spiritually. This week I was due to guide a family in the Old City on the day of the priestly blessing during Pesach. As a sat by the Jaffa Gate, waiting for them to arrive, I was struck by the nature of the hordes of Jewish people thronging through the gate on their way to the Wall for this ceremony. The whole of the Jewish people were represented – ultra-orthodox, modern-orthodox, progressive and secular; elderly, middle-aged and child; man and women; Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Yemenite; speaking Hebrew, Yiddish, English, French and Russian; a flurry of different hair styles, head coverings and colours. As I looked upon this mixed multitude moving past me I was transported to the First and Second Temple Periods, 3000 and 2000 years ago, when such scenes would have been a regular occurrence.

As we descended towards the Western Wall, I could hear the beginning of the mussaf service being broadcast over a loudspeaker. The plaza was packed, as were all the viewpoints, not just with the Jewish pilgrims but the large numbers of tourists who had come to see this special occasion.

Eventually, we reached the part of the service where the cohanim gave their blessing. There was complete silence around the plaza as the descendants of the priests of the original Temple raised their prayer shawls over their heads. The way that the blessing is given is that the chazzan (cantor) recites each word of the blessing in turn, and the priests repeat after him. Although the chazzan had a microphone, the priests did not, but even far at the back of the plaza, it was possible to hear the hundreds of cohanim join together to repeat after him in unison – the power of their combined voices reached far and wide.

Participating in this most ancient of ceremonies, right next to where it would have taken place on a regular basis (the blessings would have happened on the Temple Mount – not feasible today for obvious reasons!), was a truly moving experience. It really helped give me a sense of what the ancient pilgrimage festivals would have been like, and was a remarkable connection to my heritage and tradition. From my small synagogue in South London, with a largely homogeneous community of a few hundred people, I was suddenly part of tens of thousands of Jews from a huge variety of backgrounds, sharing in common the blessing that has been passed down to us through the millennia:May the Lord bless you and protect you;May the Lord’s face shine light upon you and be gracious unto you;May the Lord raise His face unto you and give you peace.

If you are planning to come to Israel during Pesach or Sukkot, and would like build this ceremony into a guided tour of Jerusalem, I would love to help you do so! Please do be in touch.

Time for another catch-up trip this time with the group from the university of Haifa. It was an important day as we explored the remains of the 2nd temple period in and around the Old City of Jerusalem.

The 2nd temple period was saw the peak of the monumental buildings in the land of Israel and the greatest of these was the Jewish temple and the temple mount which was the most impressive building in the Roman empire at that time. The historian Josephus gives us an account of the history of the Jews in this period which most historians consider reliable (except for when he exaggerates on numbers) so in many cases we were citing him on this field trip.

We began the day in the City of David, where we had previously been on the 1st Temple period trip, but this time were filling in a few gaps for the later period. We descended to the Shiloah pool (also known as the Pool of Siloam) which was used for drinking and also for ritual purification at the time. It was also site of a miracle where Jesus cured a blind man in the New Testament. We then went to sit on an original Herodian stepped street where we listened to an audio presentation about Jewish resistance fighters in the Great Revolt fighting against the Romans (and ultimately losing).

Walking up the Roman drainage channel in the Tyropoeon valley

We then ascended up the route of the Tyropoeon valley through a drainage channel which the Romans had dug underneath this paved road. As we walked through the passage, passing through an ancient cistern and mikve, we learned about some of the archaeological findings in it including a Roman sword preserved in its sheath, which is very unusual.

We exited the tunnels at the excavations by the south point of the Western Wall and went to the nearby Davidson Centre. The centre is a nice museum explaining a bit about the history of the construction of the temple and the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. We participated in a ‘virtual tour’ where they use a 3D computer model to take you around a reconstruction of the 2nd temple highlighting modern day archaeological finds and explaining the experience of a pilgrim. It was very interesting indeed but sadly is only available for groups on the whole, and not individual visitors.

Capital possibly from the second temple

We moved up to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. We first visited a column found in excavations from the Nea Church with a capital that based on its unusual features and dating may well have formed part of the Second Temple structure.

The Burnt House of the Katros family, Jerusalem

We continued to the Burnt House museum, the site of a home from the Second Temple period. Of great interest is the fact that are signs of burning/destructing dating to the time of the destruction of the Second Temple. Furthermore they have found vessels that would be appropriate for Cohanim (priestly families) and an inscription referring to the House of Katros; we know from ancient Jewish sources that Katros was indeed one of the priestly families. The site is accompanied by a video where actors attempt to reconstruct the lead up to the temple’s destruction portrayed through the lives of those in the house.

The oldest mosaic in Israel in the Wohl Museum of Archaeology, Jerusalem

We then moved to the Wohl Museum of Archaeology, also known as the Herodian Quarter. This is another excavation site which has unearthed a great deal of remarkable finds; one of the oldest mosaics in Israel; a huge private home with very impressive wall frescos; a great deal of private mikvaot (ritual baths) indicating that in addition to clearly being an area for the wealthy families of Jerusalem, this may have been an area of priestly families. Of particular interest is a wall design showing a menorah. Given that it may have been commissioned by a priestly family who would have seen the menorah in the temple on a daily basis, it could well be the most accurate representation we have of the menorah; it notably differs in its base from the design on Titus’s Arch in Rome.

The museum is really well done and definitely worth a visit; it’s easy to pass by but really gives a great insight into life in the second temple period for the Jerusalem elites.

Mikve from the second temple period in the western wall excavations

To conclude the day we returned to the excavations by the outer walls of the temple mount to be able to enjoy them when it was slightly cooler and more shaded. We began by the western wall, walking along the original Herodian street and imagining the shops either side which would have sold animals for the temple sacrifice or other things to meet the needs of pilgrims. Looking at their ruins around us I imagined the thousands of people ascending to the temple mount on the foot festivals; tried to picture the chaos among the throngs, the noise of the animals, the shouting of the traders. We could also see the mikvaot where pilgrims would have purified themselves before ascending to the temple; the steps were divided so that the impure would descend on one side, the pure on the other, to avoid post-immersion contamination.

Herodian street from the second temple period

We noted where the Romans had destroyed the temple and sent huge stones crashing onto the paving slaps below, leaving indentations that were still visible today. You could also see the signs of the fire on the blackened rocks.

We moved around to the southern part of the wall. We walked up the 15 steps, each of which was probably representative of one of the 15 Psalms of Ascent; a theory exists that they would have recited the psalms as they ascended. We imagined where the gates would have been (all is now blocked up) as this was probably the main entrance to the temple mount. It really is remarkable to see how much is left of this 2000 year old structure, to think about how much it is played a role in the prayers and thoughts of the Jewish people since, and to consider the fact that today it is so accessible. It is a great privilege.

We have a whole day dedicated to Jerusalem in the First Temple period, and a whole day dedicated to Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period, but it’s still not enough time to cover the vast amount of material, so this week’s trip was about filling in some of the gaps.

Roman Kiln at the Jerusalem ICC

We began in Binyanei Hauma, also known as Jerusalem International Conventions Center. This venue more normally hosts concerts and conferences than tour groups; I was somewhat surprised then when we entered and stopped in front of a display case showing artefacts from the Roman period, which I had never noticed previously. It turns out there was a big camp here for the 10th Legion of the Roman Army, we then headed downstairs and saw the remains of a kiln; it seems that it was quite a big centre for the manufacture of clay pots, roof tiles, bricks etc, all with the 10th Legion’s imprint. There was even an imprint of a sandal in one of the cases, a reminder of a sloppy soldier around 2000 years ago. I will be back in the Convention Center next month for the President’s Conference and will look forward to sharing my knowledge with the other delegates!

King David’s Tomb

We continued to David’s Tomb on Mount Zion. Here we discussed the history of the site and why it is considered to be the location of the tomb of King David (and also why some argue it is elsewhere). The site also houses the room which is considered to be the location of the Last Supper, but we shall return to visit that on our trip to Christian Jerusalem later in the course.

We moved on by foot into the Old City to the Western Wall Tunnels. The famous image of the Western Wall that is exposed above ground is actually only a small section of the wall’s full length and height. Through the tunnels it is possible to walk much further along the wall, to get a greater idea of the grandeur of the building that was – the Western Wall of today is only an outer foundation wall for the podium on which the temple was built.

Inside the Western Wall Tunnels

It was an incredible feat of engineering exemplified by the quite frankly massive stones that were involved in its construction. The largest that has been found is 14m long and the experts at the Technion have calculated its weight at 570 tonnes. And it is about half way up the wall, so they would have had to have lifted it there. There was a short and very illuminating film illustrating how they would have put these stones into place.

The Western Wall (the Kotel)

We continued down the tunnels, past the closest point to the Holy of Holies, walking along an original 2nd Temple period street and into a Hasmonean period water channel, before exiting into the Muslim Quarter. We returned to the Western Wall, known as the Kotel, where our guide told us about some of the legends associated with it explaining why it was not entirely destroyed like the rest of the temple.

Excavations in the Western Wall Plaza

Afterwards, a small treat. Facing the Kotel are some archaeological excavations which are complete and ready for the public but for some reason not yet open to them. But somehow our guide had obtained a key and we went down to see what was the Eastern Cardo (a shopping street) in the 2nd Temple period and also the remains of a First Temple home. It was nice to get this advance preview (although the excavations are visible from above, you can see more up close).

Mausoleum in Nachal Kidron (Valley of the King)

We then exited the Old City and walked down into Nachal Kidron, also known as the King’s Valley. Here are three ancient and imposing mausolea, two of which are often attributed to Avshalom (King David’s son) and Zechariah respectively, but in fact they are from the Second Temple period, i.e. a very long time after these personages would have lived. The architecture is interesting due to the unusual mishmash of Doric and Ionic columns together in the same structure; you can tell we’ve been learning about classical architecture in class!

Our next stop was at the Menachem Begin Center, located on Ketef Hinnom. I was wondering what Menachem Begin had to do with the ancient temples as we breezed through the centre, exiting out of the back, going up some stairs, and being confronted with a First Temple period burial site. As with the morning, it was fascinating to find this juxtaposition of ancient and modern at a venue which I had visited several times previously for various events, completely unaware of what lay just a few meters away.

First Temple Period Tomb at Ketef Hinnom

It was interesting to look at the excavated tombs and learn about the burial methods; even more fascinating was to learn that in one of the tombs excavators had unearthed some tiny rolls of silver. Written on them was the priestly blessing of the Cohanim, the oldest existing example of biblical text found outside the bible. The scrolls are now in the Israel Museum.

We exited the Begin Center and walked down the nearby valley, referred to as Gei Ben Hinnom. Here we heard about the Judaean King Achaz’s worship of the god Moloch; part of the ritual involved sacrifice of first born baby sons and would have happened in this valley. Somewhat unsavoury stuff.

View into Gei Ben Hinnom

We then branched off a bit from the ancient period, looking at the cable going from across our heads over to Mount Zion opposite us. In the 1948 war this was a secret way of getting supplies over to troops isolated in the mountain – a replica cable car was above our heads. As we wondered down further into the valley more surprises were in store – a Karaite cemetery where we paused to briefly learn about this religious group who only keep the laws of the first five books of the Bible without the later exegesis. We enjoyed the view down the valley leading to Nachal Kidron (whence we had come) and returned to our bus for the return home.